Work function engineering and its applications in ohmic contact fabrication to II-VI semiconductors

CdTe and the associated materials are suffering from ohmic contacting problem due to their high electron affinity and consequently large function. Ni, Au, Pt and Pd have large work function and have possibility to match with CdTe. However, except Ni other materials have problems in large-scale applications. In the present paper possibility of Ni has been explored through work function engineering. Work function and bulk resistivity of Ni has been modulated with other materials like, Cu, Au, Mo, W and Co. A theoretical model has been developed to calculate the effective work function and bulk resistivity after modulation. Modulated materials have been deposited over thin film CdTe using electroless technique to evaluate the validity between the theoretical and experimental results. Results indicated about good matching between them.To the best of knowledge this is the first time applications on such type of methodology has presented in contact applications to CdTe.